Black Business Wants Government to Cancel all Contracts with SAP

The Black Business Council (BBC) wants government to cancel all contracts with the software giant SAP because of state capture claims, according a report in City Press.

The BBC told the newspaper that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan should cancel all of SAP’s contracts with state-owned companies and put all the services the company is currently providing out to tender again.

The BBC said the German company had admitted to US authorities that it had disregarded the Hawks and, by implication, showed no respect for the country’s laws.

Two months ago, the South African subsidiary of German software giant SAP said that investigation into its dealings with the Guptas found that payments were made to Gupta-linked companies.

The investigation concluded that about R128.6 million were paid to businesses linked to the Gupta-linked firms to win contacts with state owned entities in South Africa.

The BBC has criticised Gordhan’s silence on the alleged role in state capture of SAP.

“So the question to Minister Gordhan is: What makes SAP so different to KPMG? When are you going to call for SAP’s head as you go about cleaning up your state-owned enterprises? We are curious, Mr Minister; your silence is incredibly loud,” chairperson of the BBC’s ICT portfolio committee Keith Thabo said in a statement.

Gordhan’s office declined to comment, but dismissed the BBC’s statement as illogical.

1 COMMENT

What is the difference between SAP Software and KPMG? What a question, it shows a complete lack of understanding as to what SAP does and costs. KPMG is an auditor, it can be fired at short notice and another auditor employed in its place.
SAP is a supplier of complex software that has grown to encompass most aspects of a large business or organization. The Cape Town City Council runs SAP, so does SA Breweries. Setting up SAP and customizing the software takes years, involves dozens of software consultants and more dozens of your own staff and costs tens of millions, often hundreds of millions.The investment is huge. Staff have to be trained, a massive investment made in hardware and associated software. So you don’t dump SAP for ethical reasons, you cannot afford to. You only dump it if it stops providing you with a solution, and SAP is careful that that never happens.